I’m still sort of busy with all my top secret stuff, so I’m going to let my muse write today’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group post for me. She has something she’d like to say, and maybe it’s something your muse would like to hear.

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I was at the top of my class in muse training school. I knew everything about the secret magic of inspiration. I thought I was so ready. Then I was assigned to my writer, and he was a bit younger than I’d been expecting.

Turned out I’d have to wait… and wait… and wait, until my writer finally grew up. I also had to wait while my writer went through some bad experiences, and made some poor life choices, before he finally realized what writer’s are supposed to do with their lives (hint: it involves writing!).

At the moment, my writer is going through something of a transition. He’s taking some risks and trying some new stuff, and not everything is going according to plan. He’s starting to worry. He’s getting cold feet. He’s starting to worry that maybe he wasn’t meant to be a writer at all.

Of course he doesn’t remember how he became a writer. He doesn’t remember when it really began. He was too young at the time. Which brings me to the little piece of advice that I want to share with all the other muses who might be reading this: writers sometimes need to be reminded that they were born to write.

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Today’s post is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, a blog hop where insecure writers like myself can share our worries and offer advice and encouragement. Click here to find out more about IWSG and see a list of participating blogs.

We all know writers feel insecure sometimes. That’s what the Insecure Writer’s Support Group is all about. What we writers might not realize, or may sometimes forget, is that our muses get insecure too.

With that in mind, I’m going to turn the floor over to my muse. She has something to say, and maybe it’s something you or your muse would like to hear.

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We all know the rule: one muse per writer. There just aren’t enough of us fairy-folk around to start doubling up. But I wish I could have a helper or an assistant or something. I wish I had an apprentice muse working under me. Then I could really get stuff done.

The truth is I can’t do everything myself. I can put as many ideas into my writer’s head as I want, but that doesn’t mean he’ll write them down. You know how humans are. They’re easily distracted. Their minds wander. They keep complaining about being “too tired.”

It would be nice if I could get some help. Unfortunately, King Oberon and Queen Titania have rejected my requests to start a muse internship program. That leaves me only one option: I’ll have to convince my writer to pull his own weight. Well, that plus the weight of a pen, I guess.

That way, when I give my writer ideas, he’ll be able to move his own hand over to the paper, without any magical help at all.

Today’s post is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Click here to find out more about the group and to see a full list of participating blogs.

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In the past, I’ve written a lot of IWSG posts about my muse. Mostly, I’ve written about how much we fight. We quarrel over what to write, how to write, when to write (sorry, muse, but 2 a.m. is not the appropriate time).

But today, I just want to take a moment and say something to my muse. Something I don’t say often enough.

Of course these muse posts are hyper metaphorical. They represent the inner triumphs and turmoils of the creative life. I don’t actually believe a magic fairy whispers ideas in my ear.

Metaphorical or not, the relationship between a writer and muse can become strained. Writing is hard. Tensions run high. It’s upsetting when words just don’t fit together the way they’re supposed to.

You might start to think you suck as a writer. Your writing sucks. You life sucks. You blame your muse for withholding inspiration; your muse blames you for lacking persistence. And then things get nasty.

That’s why it’s so important to stop and affirm to yourself, as often as you can, in whatever metaphorical or non-metaphorical terms you prefer, that you are good at what you do, and that you’re getting better. Go ahead. Do it now.

It might seem silly at first, but the power of positive thinking is real. It won’t solve every problem, but it is the best defense against the chronic negativity that afflicts so many of us as writers.

Today’s post is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Click here for more information about IWSG and to see a full list of participating blogs.

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I’ve written before about the difficult relationship I have with my muse. We never seem to be in sync. I want to write, and she’s not in the mood. She wants to write, but I’ve made plans with friends, or I have to leave for work, or it’s three o’clock in the morning and I’m trying to sleep.

This September created a lot of extra strain between me and my muse. You see, I moved out of my old apartment and into a nice, new house.

What my muse doesn’t seem to appreciate yet is that this new house will be a much better environment for both of us. No more loud music from the apartment upstairs, no more noisy traffic outside the bedroom window at night, no more strange smells wafting in from across the hall.

There’s a lot more space and a lot more natural light. There’s even a reading room. A room just for reading! How cool is that?

The process of moving disrupted all of my creative endeavors, which infuriated my muse; however, things bounced back to normal a lot sooner than I expected. In the final week of September, after all the moving was finished, I wrote over 18,000 words, which is probably a personal best. I’m taking that as a good sign for things to come.

At the moment, I’m still sort of living out of boxes and I’m on the hunt for new furniture. Any suggestions for things I can do to make my new house an even more writing-friendly environment?

The first Wednesday of the month is Insecure Writers Support Group day. It’s a sort of group therapy session for writers. Click here for more information and to see a full list of participating blogs.

Today, I want to once again turn the floor over to my muse, who has some insecurity issues of her own.

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Hello. I’m James’s muse. I’m the little voice inside his head telling him to write. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one in here, and some of the other voices don’t have my writer’s best interests at heart.

Sometimes, these other voices are oafishly blunt, saying things like, “Your writing is bad and you should feel bad.” Other times, they’re a bit more crafty. “Gee,” they’ll say, “you’re really busy today. Too busy to write. Why don’t you do it tomorrow or next week?”

This nonsense is easy enough for me to ignore, but my writer gets confused and flustered.

The only thing I can do is try to make sure that my voice is the loudest. But even then, the negative voices still find ways to sabotage my writer’s efforts.

Are there are other muses out there having this kind of problem? What have you done to combat all this internal negativity and keep your writers on track?